Secrets

by Shannon Pemrick

  One of the psychics looked at me with a smile. “You don’t need to worry. He’s going to be just fine.”

  Her voice… At least now I could put a face to the mysterious psychic that had been speaking to me earlier. I had to admit, she sounded a lot older than she looked.

  “Trust me, I’ve already seen it.”

  “Shaman healing doesn’t work right for him,” I said. “He’s going to need more than just two healers.”

  “Don’t worry. He’ll be good as new in a moment. You need to focus on shaman matters, though. Questions won’t be answered unless they’re sought out.”

  I couldn’t argue that. We needed to know who these people were, but now that they were all dead, only shamans could speak with them. The healing shaman protested as I limped away, but I ignored him. My leg could wait.

  I walked over to a high-ranked soldier who was taking the liberty of kicking what was left of the bodies as he checked out the mess.

  “You shouldn’t be so disrespectful to the dead,” I scolded.

  “Rebel scum don’t deserve respect.”

  “And how do you know they truly are what you think they are?”

  “I just know. What else do I need to have?”

  “Proof. Facts showing who they are.”

  “They attacked us. What more is there to know?”

  “You are blind to what is the truth, because of what you want to see.”

  “If you think you can give me proof, then please, Ambassador, be my guest.”

  I didn’t like the sarcasm in his voice, and it made me hope I could prove him wrong. Sure, these people weren’t from our rebel group, but that didn’t mean another with different motives and ideals wasn’t springing up.

  Kneeling down on the ground, I closed my eyes and sought out the spiritual plane and any lingering spirit who would have a connection to what happened. My breath slowed when I made the plane connection, and when I opened my eyes, I found a gray, lifeless world before me. I looked around until a spirit manifested in front of me. I wasn’t surprised at all to see that it was the leader of this rebel group, and he looked terrified.

  “Where am I? What is this place?” he asked.

  “You’re on the spiritual plane.”

  He gulped. “I’m… dead?” I nodded. He shook his head and backed away. “No, this can’t be happening. Sara is waiting for me to come home. The kids… I promised them I’d be home from work on time this time.”

  Something wasn’t right with this man, as if he had no idea what had happened to him. He turned away from me and looked around for a way out, and that didn’t settle well with me. I needed answers, even if I had to piece them together.

  “Wait!” He looked at me. “Who are you, and why did you attack us?”

  “Me attack you? Why would I do that?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’d never attack anyone.” He turned to leave again.

  “Please don’t go! My friend almost died because you guys attacked us.” The man stopped again. “Please try to remember. I don’t hate you, I just want to know what happened and why. Try to remember.”

  “I don’t—” His brow furrowed—”wait, maybe I do. I was walking home from work, my car had broken down, and our funds were too low to afford a cab. I didn’t want to be late getting home, so I thought I was taking a shortcut. It was dark and the street was deserted, or, so I thought. I wasn’t actually alone. Someone was following me, and they weren’t trying to hide it…”

  He looked around as if he was forgetting again.

  “What happened with the person who was following you?”

  “What? Oh, right… I picked up my pace, but he kept following me, so I panicked and ran. I was confused, so I took a wrong turn and was jumped by a group of people. They tied me up and blindfolded me, so I couldn’t see who they were. Then someone hit me on the head, and everything went silent…”

  He looked down at the ground, disappointed in himself for some reason. He then began to fade. “I… I really am dead…”

  “Hey wait!” He looked at me. “Tell me your name.”

  He stopped fading. “What?”

  “What’s your name?”

  “My name? My name is Delmon.”

  “Delmon.” I smiled. “It’s a nice name.”

  He smiled back. “Thank you.”

  “Delmon, do you remember anything after you were jumped by those mysterious people? Anything at all?”

  He shook his head. “No, I—wait, maybe…”

  “Take your time. There’s no rush.” I prayed that was true and that my body wouldn’t pull me back before I could get some answers.

  Delmon’s brow creased with concentration. He sighed with defeat after a few moments. “I’m sorry… I can’t…”

  I held out my hand. “It’s okay. Maybe you can show me instead?”

  He looked at my hand skeptically. “What’s in it for me?”

  “I will tell your family what happened and you can move on.”

  He looked around. “Does the afterlife always look like this?”

  I shook my head. “No. It’s much nicer once you move on. This is only the Plane Between.”

  “Purgatory.”

  I nodded. Ordinary people and their names for the planes. I felt bad for lying to him, but if it got him to pass over then it didn’t matter. In truth, no one knew what was on the other side, not even shamans. Spirits never told, as it was forbidden to. It was why I never asked Arcadia when I met her.

  Delmon extended his hand. “Please, tell my family I’m sorry I wasn’t able to keep my promise.”

  I smiled. “I’ll tell them whatever you want me to tell them.”

  He rested his hand on mine and I was instantly transported elsewhere, but not all of me. It was as if only my eyes were. All I could see was bits of Delmon’s memory. The memory was in shades of grey, and a little fuzzy in areas that weren’t the focus. There wasn’t any sound, but it was obvious things were moving and should have made some sort of noise.

  Delmon, no longer blindfolded, was tied to a chair in a windowless room. Men in strange uniforms that resembled soldiers’ uniforms surrounded him. Delmon looked only half-conscious and unresponsive to the men around him, which pleased them.

  A man behind Delmon grabbed him by his hair and pulled his head back. Another came up to him and held up a syringe gun. Delmon became more conscious when he saw the gun, because his eyes widened and he began to struggle. The men around him because to laugh, and the man with the gun held him down by the shoulder and injected something into his neck. Delmon’s eyes widened and he screamed in pain until he passed out.

  The man holding Delmon’s head let him go, but they didn’t leave—as if waiting for something… or someone. Finally Delmon stirred and lifted his head. But something was different. His eyes looked… colder.

  The man who had injected him with the solution in the gun began speaking with Delmon, and he responded by looking at and listening intently to this man. Delmon nodded and smiled wickedly as if he were agreeing with what the man was telling him. When the man finished speaking, another man cut the ropes that bound Delmon to the chair. Delmon stood up, rubbing his wrist due to the discomfort of the restraints.

  The man who had been speaking with Delmon motioned him to follow, and he did so without a fuss. He didn’t attempt to run. He didn’t attempt to fight these men. He stood among them as if he were on their side. It was like he was a completely different person.

  The memory changed, and was now more chaotic than before. It showed Delmon being trained, and then him working with others that reminded me of the other fighters he had been with when he had attacked us. It then showed h
im and that same group sneaking around and planting bombs somewhere. It showed them watching from afar, as buildings blew up, both civilian and military, and then of them planning some more.

  In the midst of these memories, some other, more vibrant ones showed. They were pleasant memories of his family. While he had been doing all of this he could still remember them. I wanted the memories to stop. I knew what was going on now, but they weren’t finished.

  The men from before were now back, and they were giving instructions to this group. The group moved out with their weapons and moved through the city like shadows. The memory then showed them slipping into a building and attacking some soldiers that looked like ones from this city. They moved down a hall that looked familiar, and then were confronted by more soldiers. The rebel took the weaponless soldiers out with ease, and broke down the large double doors to the main party hall we had all been in.

  The memory slipped away and I stumbled backward.

  Delmon looked as if he was in a lot of pain. “I really didn’t do all of that, did I?”

  I shook my head. “No, Delmon, you didn’t. Someone controlled your body and made you do those things. They took your life away from you.”

  Delmon looked at his hands. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I did. Tell my family I’m sorry I never kept my promise.”

  “I’ll tell them,” I promised. “I’ll tell them you tried. I’ll tell them you loved them and you never meant for this to happen. I’ll tell them you thought of them even while you were forced to leave them behind.”

  “Thank you.” He smiled at me before he began to fade away, and I was okay with it this time. I had the information I needed, and it was now time for him to move on.

  “Be wary, young freedom fighter.” His disembodied voice came. “They come from the outside. They turned us into a distraction so they could get in. They don’t want their presence known until it’s too late. Stop them, before they destroy everything.”

  Color returned to the world around me, and air rushed back into my lungs. I took slow, controlled breath, so as to not show any signs of weakness in front of these soldiers. We didn’t need them knowing what happened to untrained shamans and then twisting that knowledge to think it applied to all of us.

  The young man who had tried to heal me before was waiting beside me. I nodded and he fixed up my leg.

  “Well?” The soldier I had argued with before questioned impatiently.

  I didn’t speak or stand up until the healer completed his task. “They were not rebels.”

  The soldier snorted. “Do you have proof? And I mean real proof, not just words.”

  “I saw it. I saw what they did to him. To all of them.”

  “Who did what to them?”

  “I don’t know who, but they controlled these innocent people to commit vile acts against their will.”

  The soldier snorted again. “I’m sorry, but I can’t take only your word on this matter.”

  “Then take mine as well.” We looked at a young psychic woman as she advanced toward us. It was the woman who had been speaking with me. “I can see what she saw. I can show you the same, if needed.”

  “Very well,” the officer said. “We will clean up this mess in the mean time.”

  “This will not take long,” she informed us both.

  The soldier snorted and walked off to shout orders.

  The psychic looked at me. “This won’t hurt.”

  “This won’t be the first time a psychic has read my mind, but I will apologize in advance for anything disturbing you see. In this form of reading, it is hard to hide… certain events.”

  The psychic held out her hand. “I’m well aware of the torture you went thought, Eira. I’m also close with a friend of yours and sometimes what she knows gets transferred to me by accident.”

  I took the woman’s hand and instantly felt her enter my mind. It didn’t hurt, but it was uncomfortable, though less so than seeing all the memories she probed. Most of the memories were of the conversation I had with Delmon, but every once in a while a random personal memory came up. Sometimes it was a bloodstained memory and other times it was something that happened more recently, like the event Raikidan and I shared in the alley next to the club. These types of events were more common for some reason. I wasn’t sure if it was because they were so fresh or I had done a much better job at suppressing the bad memories.

  I could tell this woman was still training. She wasn’t anywhere near Seda’s talent. Most of the time, you didn’t feel her presence, and you didn’t see the memories she looked at.

  The young woman pulled her hand away when she had seen what she needed to see and looked away. “Captain Drengo, the Ambassador is telling the truth.”

  The soldier from before walked over to us curiously. “Excuse me?”

  “These are ordinary civilians who were taken and controlled by an outside source.”

  “What was controlling them?”

  “A serum. I cannot say what kind, but it was injected into the bloodstream. It is fast-acting, only taking a few minutes at most.”

  “Who is doing it? Rebels, I can only imagine.”

  The woman shook her head. “No, not rebels. They have no need for such methods. These people had more funding, and they wore uniforms. We’re looking for an outside invader.”

  Drengo eyed me and I wasn’t having it. “You’re accusing us of doing this?”

  People began to speak quietly, their words filled with hate and worry.

  “It’s convenient you want to enforce peace when this all happens.”

  Tla’lli advanced. “You attacked my village during a celebration, under false pretenses. Of course we want to enforce peace. We’ve done nothing wrong, and here you are pointing fingers again.”

  “All the more—”

  “That’s enough!” Zo stormed over to us. “Drengo, leave. I won’t tolerate this behavior, or your accusations.”

  “But, sir.”

  “Leave! I’ll deal with you later.”

  Drengo scowled. “Yes, sir.”

  It wasn’t until Drengo was out of our line of sight did Zo speak to me. “I apologize for his rudeness. He was out of line.”

  Tla’lli opened her mouth to speak, but I didn’t let her say anything. “It’s all right. I can see where he is coming from.”

  Zo looked at me with slight confusion. “You can?”

  “I am a neutral figure. It’s my job to see both sides and find an outcome both sides can be happy with.”

  Zo nodded. “I see. Then in the interest of our side and possibly yours, can you help us anymore than you have?”

  “What this woman now knows is all I can tell you, except for one piece of information I don’t think this young psychic knows, and I’m not quite sure if it’s of any use.”

  “Any information you can offer is useful.”

  “The man I spoke with, the one who led this attack, his name is Delmon.”

  A soldier approached us. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but did I hear you correctly? You said his name was Delmon?”

  I nodded. “Yes, that is correct.”

  “Corporal, you know the man?” Zo inquired.

  “Not personally, no, but coincidentally, I wrote up his missing persons report.”

  “How long ago was that?”

  “A few months ago. I’d have to look at the report to know the exact time.”

  “From the memories Delmon showed me, it would be around spring time,” I said.

  “Early spring, to be exact.” The young psychic corrected. “I have calculated his disappearance to be one month prior to the mid spring attacks that first began this whole problem. That month would be enough time to make them look like real rebels, even if their goals were not the same.”
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br />   “Corporal, I want you to dig up that report, along with all the other missing persons reports from around that time to now. We may be able to identify some of these other civilians.”

  “I will help with that,” the psychic offered. “I will be able to identify them with the information I have by looking at their pictures.”

  “Someone will have to inform any living relatives if they are identified,” the corporal informed.

  Zo nodded grimly. “Not a favorite task, but a necessary one. I’ll do them, along with anyone else who volunteers.”

  I almost smiled at Zo’s selfless offer. He may be a creep around women, but he seemed to genuinely want to help civilians. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as I made him out to be.

  “Someone is going to have to tell Delmon’s wife the grim news,” the corporal stated.

  “I’ll be doing that,” I said. “I promised Delmon I would.”

  “Wouldn’t that go beyond your neutral terms?” Zo questioned.

  “If he weren’t dead, you would be right,” Tla’lli said. “But since she spoke with him on the spiritual plane, it becomes a shaman matter, giving us the jurisdiction to do something.”

  Shva’sika approached us. “We would be able to help identify the ones who have died tonight, if you would like that.”

  “Wouldn’t that go against the standing you’re trying to enforce tonight?” Zo asked.

  She shook her head. “It is our job to keep peace between the spiritual plane and the living one. The men and women who have died will more than likely be restless and could pose a problem, though few of you would recognize those signs as anything more than ordinary accidents and such. If we can speak with them, we can put them to rest and identify them for you to ease your search.”

  Zo nodded. “It would benefit us both. Very well, I will agree to this.”

  The corporal looked at me. “If you’re going to speak with Delmon’s wife, you should know her name is Sara. I remember that much. I’ll have to dig up the files to give you the home address.” I nodded, remembering that Delmon had mentioned the name Sara while we were speaking on the spiritual plane.